


You Only Have One Brother

by danvssomethingorother



Category: The Venture Bros
Genre: AU where Malcom and Rusty get to be raised together, Child Abuse, Gen, children in danger probably in future parts, they get to share the trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-02 10:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15794943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/pseuds/danvssomethingorother
Summary: An AU where Malcom and Rusty are twins and the only thing they have keeping each other sane in face of all the danger their dad puts them through.





	1. Chapter 1

“Malcom! Malcom!”

Malcom glanced up from his toy truck he was rolling across the ground to see his brother racing towards him, holding his hands behind his back, a large smile plastered across his face.

“You’ll never guess what I just found!” 

He came to a halt in front of his brother, feet skidding in the dirt making a large puff of dust hit his brother making him scowl.

“I don’t know, something dumb,” he grumbled going back to his game running over a few more ants that blocked his path.

“No stupid, its really cool and you will like it,” Rusty huffed stomping his foot testily making dirt fly again annoying Malcom further.

“No its not, you are such a nerd Rusty, its probably dumb, just like everything else you bring me…”

Rusty huffed and stomped his foot again, annoying Malcom more. His brother was such a brat and a pain. Malcom was still mad at him for ditching him on their last stupid family vacation and leaving him alone to wander around the jungle for a few hours till Uncle Rodney finally found him, he didn’t really care what his brother had behind his back. He wanted some alone time from his annoying brother and yet here he was again back to annoy him some more. Typical Rusty not getting the hint.

Malcom snarled his brother’s way as he plopped down on his blanket uninvited but didn’t do anything. Rusty was Rusty, he was going to do what Rusty wanted. 

“It’s a monarch butterfly!” Rusty proclaimed loudly pulling a jar from behind his back and shoving it in his brother’s face.

“It’s neat right?” he said proudly, his smile wide enough to make Malcom crack one as he stared at the butterfly twitching its wings in the jar.

“I found him in the back of the X – 1, he must have stowed away with us. I bet he misses his family.”

Malcom scoffed at that, “Shoving him in a jar isn’t going to make him feel any better Rusty. He’s probably tired of seeing your stupid face.”

 

Rusty scoffed loudly and crossed his arms, “I named him Malcom cause he looks like you, ugly.”

 

The brothers both began to giggle as they began shoving each other, nearly knocking over the jar holding the butterfly.

“Boys you stop that horsing around!” they both looked up from their pretend fighting to see their uncle Horace looking displeased at their idea of playing, hands firmly on his hips, “You boys need to play nice with each other, you only have one brother.”

“Yes Uncle Horace,” they both said in equally annoyed tones, their uncle muttering under his breath he was gonna bend them both over his knee if they kept fighting before turning back to talking to Uncle Rodney who was snickering at their antics. Rodney usually provoked their fighting and found it amusing, Horace was the one who always ended it with a quick smack to both their bottoms with his cane. Horace gave his friend the worst stink eye at his encouragement of their behavior making the boys giggle before turning back to each other.

Rusty picked up the jar and pulled it close to him, a content smile on his face.

“I wanna release him, when we go to New York tomorrow, his family will be migrating there soon according to Pop, I want him to return to them.”

Malcom just rolled his eyes, his brother just ate up whatever nonsense their dad spoon fed them. As if that particular butterfly had anything resembling a family to return to in New York. 

“I’m sure Malcom the Monarch will be super happy to be lost in New York.”

“About as happy as Malcom the human will be,” Rusty said sticking his tongue out at his brother.

“I would never get lost if you weren’t always running off!” Malcom snarled shoving his brother harder then he intended to, knocking him over and making him drop his jar, it rolling away from them and hitting against a rock cracking the side. Rusty didn’t hesitate to shove his brother back just as hard knocking him over onto his truck he had previously abandoned, breaking its wheel off under his weight. 

Malcom let out an ear shattering scream and began hitting his blanket, he really hated his brother some days, he really did and wished the kidnappers would just keep him. 

He distantly heard Uncle Rodney trying to calm him down and assure him they could fix his truck but he was having none of it, he was done with his brother. He might have said that too cause the next thing he knew he felt Uncle Rodney pulling him close.

“Ya don’t mean that Malcom, ya don’t really want the kidnappers to keep him,” he said gently resting his hand on his head, “He’s a pain in the butt that one but he’s your brother and you only have one of them.”

That’s what his uncles always told them when they fought, they only had one brother, so they needed to protect each other but sometimes Malcom wondered if Dad even knew he had more then one son.

\---

Later that night Malcom stormed into the bedroom he shared with his brother after Kano had helped him get ready for bed. He spotted Dad sitting on the end of Rusty’s bed, flipping through a butterfly book with him and he just felt angry. He hated that when Dad wanted to pretend he had kids, he only put his attention towards Rusty.

“See? Your little Monarch friend is perfectly fine,” he heard his dad chuckle ruffling Rusty’s hair making his blood boil more, “They are made of tougher stuff, just like you, Rust.”

Rusty didn’t seem very convinced just flipping through the book but nodded to their father anyway.

“I want you to get plenty of rest tonight, we will be heading out in the morning,” Dad said finally turning his attention to Malcom. 

“And no more of this fighting nonsense,” he said firmly but affectionately wagging his finger at Rusty and taking his book from him and putting it up on a high shelf. 

“We only have one brother,” Rusty said in monotone drawl and Malcom on instinct mouthed it, both frowning and looking anywhere but at each other. 

“That’s right,” Dad said with a nod kissing Rusty on the cheek making him scowl and gently patting Malcom on the head as walked by, not really directly talking to him, “And you boys must learn to take care of each other. You will need each other one day.”

He paused a moment and Malcom almost thought he would acknowledge his presence but as usual he didn’t, just addressed them as if they were a hive mind.

“Pleasant dreams Rusty, don’t stay up too late, we have an adventure awaiting us in the morning.” 

With that he was gone, probably back to the lab to finish up the project he was presenting in New York or back to his study where he spent most of his time.

At first neither brother said anything to each other after their father left, both intending on ignoring the other it seemed. From the faint glow of their night light (that Rusty had to have), Malcom could make out the stupid butterfly sitting on his brother’s night stand. Rusty reached over and ran his finger over the large crack on the side before getting up, Malcom turned over in his bed not caring what his stupid brother did. He may only have one but that didn’t mean he had to like his brat of a brother.

“Malcom?”

He chose to ignore his brother but it seemed his brother wasn’t going to be ignored because he climbed in bed with him.

“I know that truck was your favorite toy…”

Malcom just snorted at that, it wasn’t like Rusty ever respected his stuff, the amount of times he just took what he wanted without asking.

“I didn’t mean to shove you on it and break it…”

Malcom continued to seethe in silence not wanting to do this now, he just wanted to sleep. He was just about ready to lash out at his brother again when he saw Rusty place something in his line of sight. 

Malcom almost choked on a sob as he saw his favorite toy, with its wheel reattached right in his line of sight on his pillow. He instantly latched onto it.

“Uncle Horace helped me fix it, he told me it was wrong of me to shove you back like that. He told me you were still upset about what happened in the jungle. I’m really sorry about that Malcom, I didn’t mean to abandon you…”

“Why did you do that?” he choked on his own sob he had been trying so hard to hold back, “Why do you always do that? You just leave me when I need you.”

“I don’t know,” Rusty was crying too, his words broken and his shoulders shaking, “I didn’t want to…but then Dr. Z grabbed me from behind and I didn’t want him to get you too, so I just said it was just me…”

Malcom rolled over and stared at his brother crying.

“Rodney says you just shove it down when you get kidnapped and give a brave face for dad, what do they do to you?” 

Rusty didn’t answer just staring off letting the tears run silently down his face. He wasn’t going to answer. Rusty was never going to tell him. He just sighed and pulled his brother down with him on the bed. His brother was a damn idiot who drove him crazy but their uncles were right, they only had each other when push came to shove. No one else was going to be there for them when they finally broke.


	2. the cartoon

Sometimes Malcom just felt like the outlier of the Venture family, the one part that didn’t fit into the well-oiled machine that made up Jonas Venture’s legacy.

He wasn’t particularly smart or talented and spent most adventures getting lost. It was only a matter of time before he was just left to wander forever because he just did not fit into this picture. He kept glancing at Rusty from the corner of his eye, the cute bright-eyed boy adventurer dad must have always wanted. The one who didn’t just get lost because he was dumb but because he believed in this life. He wanted to solve the mysteries, he wanted to understand the science, he wanted to fit into the mold and got himself into danger to fit perfectly into it.

The perfect doll dad could show off to his friends with only slight damage around the edges. Malcom watched as he sat slouched over his desk working out the equations dad had given him earlier, gnawing at his lip as he sat in thought.

“Hey Rust…” Malcom began trying to lighten the mood that had settled over their bedroom since they had returned from New York nearly two months ago.

“Yeah, Mal?” he mumbled not turning to face him.

“Are you excited about the cartoon dad bought for us?”

Their dad had finally got the rights through for their very own cartoon and had surprised them with the news a week ago. Comics and adventure books were obsolete, every good parent got their child their own cartoon about their adventures. Benton Quest had accidentally started this new trend when he signed the rights to his memoirs (that he was still in the process of writing and releasing in parts) to a cartoon company that had made it about his son, Johnny. Malcom hated the real Action Johnny as much as you could hate a person, but his cartoon wasn’t bad.

If there was something that would make Malcom at least pretend he belonged in this picture, it was seeing a romanticized version of himself solving cases with his family. 

Rusty didn’t answer that right away, he just looked angry.

“I didn’t want a stupid cartoon,” Rusty hissed clenching his fists.

“Well Scamp isn’t coming back,” Malcom grumbled giving up on talking to his brother, he was always like this. So ungrateful and always trying to drag Malcom into a bad mood with him.

They had tried everything to find Scamp, but the dog was just gone. He ran away and Rusty had to deal with that eventually. Dad had even brought the news up in a last-ditch effort to get Rusty to stop being so depressed once it really set in the dog was gone, he ran away while they were in New York and he wasn’t coming back. He wasn’t going to magically appear again like he usually did, he was just gone.

Rusty didn’t try to talk to his brother he just threw his pencil down and stormed out of the room. His brother was a drama queen. He could never just accept something was making Malcom happy, it had to be about him at all times. 

\---

Malcom had begun doodling what he thought he and his family would look like in the cartoon their dad had promised them. He often left Rusty out, but he was tired of Rusty being seen as the only Venture child. He was tired of reporters only asking Rusty things, people at parties only putting their focus on his dumb brother. He just wanted it to be about him for once. He knew that was wrong and was happy his brother would be in the real show but right now he just wanted things to be about him. It wasn’t like Rusty was being a very good brother anyway.

He glanced up from his drawings and glared at his brother reading a book on biology on his bed, curled into himself and not even trying to talk to brother about what the heck was making him act so weird.

“Malcom?” Rusty said, it was nothing more then a whisper, but Malcom liked to joke they had a seventh sense for each other being twins and all. Yeah, that was probably the only reason he even picked up on the faint noise.

“What nerd?” Malcom grumbled back, not looking up from trying to design a cool costume just for him. He was debating on whether or not he wanted to have wings or not.

“Do you think Uncle Rodney is a good person?”

Malcom didn’t answer glancing over at a drawing he had just tossed to the side that had him riding on said Uncle’s shoulders and helping him punch out a lizard person.

“I guess so, he’s never let us down in the past.”

Rusty didn’t say anything after that making Malcom groan loudly, Rusty was cryptic sometimes. He just asked weird questions then didn’t follow up on them, locking back up whatever was on his mind, not trusting his own twin with whatever was hanging over his head. 

“Why?” Malcom snapped out not wanting Rusty to just close off from him again like he had been doing.

“I just sometimes wonder if he is a good person,” Rusty said but instantly shut his mouth as someone knocked on their door.

Their father’s dazzling smile silenced both of them and made them both fidget in unison and sit up pushing aside what they had previously been working on. 

“Hello boys, what are you two up to in here?”

“Nothing dad,” they both grumbled out both sharing a glance with each other before looking up at their father. 

“Rusty, can I have a word with you in my study?” he asked, the way it was asked was gentle and easy going and the easy smile made it feel innocent but there was just something strange about how he came in just now when Rusty was about to tell his brother something that made Malcom uncomfortable.

He never wondered if Uncle Rodney was a good person or not but even at such a young age, he always felt himself questioning his father deep down.

\---

Jonas Venture never spared any expense. He was throwing a lavish party just for the premier of the cartoon based on his party.

Rusty seemed indifferent and almost annoyed with the workers outside setting up the out-door tents and food stands and of course the giant theater screen they would view the first few episodes of the show before anyone else could, on Dad’s request.

But Malcom was ecstatic. He wanted this show more then anything. He wanted to finally feel like a Venture. 

Malcom couldn’t hold his excitement and wanted to talk about what he wanted from the show with his brother but Rusty seemed tense about talking about it at all. He had been quick to tell him he needed to go talk to their dad, gathering his biology work he had been working on and practically ran to their father’s study. 

Malcom scowled at his bedroom door before gathering his drawings up and walking down stairs where their uncles were all sitting around the TV and unwinding with beers after the training session their dad had them do today. 

“I told you to burry the blasted thing and you didn’t, its your own damn fault that little boy is mad at you,” he heard Uncle Horace loudly telling someone, his voice carrying over the opening jingle of the show they were watching.

“It wasn’t my god damn fault! The damn little werewolf took a chunk of my leg and I didn’t feel like burring it! Jonas spoils that damn boy and those are just the facts. He got him a damn cartoon, what more does he want? I am gonna bend that one over my leg if he keeps giving me attitude…”

“Oh stop being such a damn baby, if you had just done what I told ya ta do, we wouldn’t even have to deal with a long boring press release tomorrow.” 

“I’m just saying you never see Malcom acting out like Rusty and ya know why? Malcom isn’t handed the moon every single damn time he gets a little sad! Favoritism! That’s what this is! Rusty isn’t gonna be cute in a few more years and then we’ll see which one of those boys is the favorite…”

“Shut your stupid mouth before someone hears you!” Horace hissed and a loud smack echoed indicating he had hit Rodney. 

“You made your bed, now lie in it. Rusty isn’t gonna like you again by talking like that…”

Malcom lost his balance a little hitting the wall just right to knock off a picture of Dad off the wall and jumped a little as it struck the ground.

“You keep yer god damn mouth shut,” Horace hissed at Rodney before getting up, his shadow reaching towards the hallway Malcom was standing in.

“Rusty? Is that you lad?”

“No,” Malcom grumbled out before he could stop himself.

“Oh, hello Malcom,” Horace said nervously turning his eyes back towards the laugh track playing behind him before giving his best smile, “Is there something you wanted?” 

“I um wanted to come down with you guys cause Rusty is busy with dad,” he finally managed out and Horace laughed patting him on the head and leading him into the room.

Rodney was sitting on the couch with a beer, it didn’t look like he had bothered to change his cloths after the brutal training run his dad had made his team go through. His cloths were battle damaged and it looked like he just rolled bandages over them instead of disinfecting his few injuries properly and dressing them correctly.

Horace was just as clean as ever, a stark contrast to Rodney. Malcom liked the way Horace smelled, it wasn’t harsh and musky like his father but soft and gentle. Those weren’t words he would use to describe his uncle in any other way but it suited him somehow.

“Come ‘ere, Malcom,” Rodney called splashing his beer on the couch making Horace scowl as he waved it around, “Come sit with yer favorite uncle.”

Malcom wasted no time in sitting by his uncle, he always liked being with Rodney. He didn’t feel like he had to be anything less then himself to get his attention but he felt a nervous flutter of butterflies thinking of Rusty’s question the other night.

“What cha got there, Malcom?” Rodney asked giving him his full attention cocking his head towards his drawings.

“I was making drawings for the cartoon dad got me and Rusty…” he said and his heart fell a little as both his uncles sighed.

“Let us see them,” Rodney said easily pulling Malcom close to him and taking the pictures from him, carding his fingers through his unruly red hair as he flipped through the drawings.

“Now this is a work of damn art, Mal,” Rodney chuckled splashing a little beer on Malcom making him scowl as he laughed and pulled Malcom close to him holding out the picture of the two of them punching out a lizard man.

“This? Right here? Belongs in a museum and I don’t care who says otherwise.”

Malcom was beaming as he clung to his uncle, this is all he really wanted. 

 

A few more drinks in and Rodney was helping Malcom draw elaborate scenes for the show Malcom wanted so badly.

“Another thing…yer damn dad wants this show to be too tame…for the kids, he says,” Rodney blew a raspberry making Malcom giggle, “I say we go all out and show the kids all the blood and gore that really happened. My guns are real, ya know? You are not getting up after I shoot ya…”

“Uncle Rodney did you help make the show?”

“Afraid not or it would be good…yer dad took care of everything. ‘The Rusty Venture Show’…I wanted it to be called the ‘Venture Variety Hour’…”

Malcom dropped his crayon and just stared at his uncle.

“Dad said it was gonna be called ‘The Venture Bros’…” he grumbled, heart sinking lower and lower.

“The studio didn’t think that would sell, but yer brother would since yer dad is always throwing him in front of the cameras anyway. Sorry there Mal but I think the show is mainly gonna be about yer brother.” 

“But Dad said…” Malcom whispered tears already forming, Horace sensing problems jumped up dropping the magazine he had previously been flipping through.

“Don’t take it too hard, Malcom, yer dad promised you, you would be in the show, remember? We just have to jump over some red tape first…ya just gotta be patient.”

Malcom wasn’t listening, his insides were boiling. He didn’t know how but Rusty must have convinced dad to write him out, that’s why he was spending so much time with Dad lately. He couldn’t hear a word his uncles were saying as he raced upstairs.

He found Rusty laying on the bed staring at the ceiling, Rusty sat up and gave him a smile that quickly fell at the look Malcom was giving him.

“I didn’t want the stupid cartoon,” Rusty mumbled looking away from his brother, “You were just so happy, I couldn’t tell you I knew you wouldn’t be in it…”

Malcom felt like hitting his brother but he just couldn’t. The precious favorite would probably just get something else out of that.

“I hate you, Rusty…” he spat out.

Rusty had never looked more hurt as he stared him down, “Malcom…”

“I hate you!!!” Malcom screamed through tears and maybe he said more, he didn’t know. Rodney was pulling him close to him before a bigger fight could break out between the two.

\---

Rusty loved his life and he loved his family. That was never up for debate. He loved them all with his entire heart, he loved going on adventures with his strange family, he loved studying with his father and above all else he loved his brother, his only friend in this entire world.

The large blow out premier of Jonas Venture’s son’s very own cartoon had come and gone and in its wake a storm of emotions hung over the Venture compound.

Rusty was no real stranger to bad situations, he had been thrust into the lime light at three and most assumed he was Jonas’s only son the way he kept the cameras on him at all times, so he had been kidnapped quite a few times in his nine years alive. He told everyone it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t like he had been seriously injured in the past (except once but they didn’t talk about that). His family was always there to save him and besides if he wasn’t so into solving the case too just to make dad proud of him, maybe he wouldn’t get kidnapped. It was just part of the life, he couldn’t reap the benefits of all the wonderful things that happened if he couldn’t deal with someone kidnapping him every once and awhile.

That’s what dad told him and he trusted dad, Dad would always come through for him.

Malcom was the one he really found himself worried about. He was invisible to the entire world and Rusty did him no favors…

Rusty stood in the foyer staring at the many picture of himself smiling back at him, Dad had hung each up with pride so every guest who entered their home could see how successful his son was becoming. The science projects they finished together. The cut out and framed photos from tabloids of cases Rusty helped solved (usually completely by accident by just stumbling in on the villain). His recent cartoon (that he begged his father to not get him) and him smiling awkwardly by a cut out of his animated counterpart and the boy who voiced him in the show, his dad towering above him with a bright smile.

Rusty looked away from all of that and just stared at the picture sitting on the mantle of him and Malcom playing with each other. He touched it and felt like crying, his brother hated him now and he didn’t know what to do. 

There were three events in Rusty’s entire life that still made shivers run down his spine. No matter how much time passed, they just wouldn’t shake themselves from Rusty’s subconscious.

The first he was five, Malcom had been napping in their room, but he just couldn’t stay there anymore. He needed to leave. He had gone into his own living room, a place he should have been safe and began looking through his father’s records (something he knew he shouldn’t have been doing and maybe what happened next was the universe telling him that was wrong of him), when someone had grabbed him from behind. 

He was far from a competent villain. Rusty had been dealing with Dr. Z since he was three, he knew what competence looked like and this guy was a joke. He had silly boxing gloves and he made a lot of puns, he even promised Rusty, the person he kidnapped, he wasn’t going to hurt him. He just wanted his dad to notice him. He didn’t seem that bad.

If he was a threat, Rusty would have screamed for his dad the second he saw this guy but he just wasn’t a threat. He even apologized after the initial scare he had given Rusty and held his hand as he took him to the yard to see his family, sneaking behind them for dramatic effect.

Rusty always felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably thinking of Uncle Rodney beating this man who meant no harm to anyone into the ground with his gun and then shooting him point blank in the head.

Rusty clenched his midsection just thinking of the blood sticking to his skin, it didn’t wash off easy, it stained the water he soaked in that night. He slept with Dad that night, he just couldn’t think of anything but that poor man’s face caved in from a bullet, his brains staining their yard…

The second had been the worse kidnapping he ever had to endear in his entire life. Dr. Z always talked big but he never really did any serious harm to him, usually just had his henchmen throw him in a cell. It was lonely and isolating but it was nothing compared to what the Mistress of Darkness had made him endear when he was seven. That stuck to his skin like that man in the boxing glove’s blood did. It was always there and would never wash away no matter how much he tried to rid himself of the memory or the torture she had put him through.

He thought he was actually going to die…it was the closest he ever wanted to get to death, he chocked back a sob shaking that from his head. He couldn’t. Not now.

And now the most recent memory that made his stomach churn uneasily, his brother screaming he hated him and swearing to never talk to him again and in the week that had passed, he hadn’t.

He felt someone put their hand on his shoulder.

“Rusty stop,” they told him firmly gently making him stop his frantic pacing, “Just breathe kid, yer dad wants ya ta go clean up…that news reporter will be here soon.”

Rusty yanked himself away and turned a glare towards his Uncle Rodney once he registered who had grabbed him.

“I don’t want to talk to the stupid press anymore! And I am not talking to you anymore!”

Rodney groaned and rolled his eyes, “Hate to break it to you, kiddo but you are talking ta me right now. Stop being a brat, yer dad loves you enough to put you on the cover of ‘Scientist Monthly’ with him, so maybe drop the god damn attitude?” 

Rusty crossed his arms and stubbornly turned away from the man and stared sadly and longingly at the framed photo of him and his brother. He would trade all this just for his brother to talk to him again.

“You are such a little pain in the ass Rusty, you get everything in the world and you act like this. Your brother doesn’t get half the shit you get!” 

“Don’t talk about my brother!” Rusty yelled pivoting around to face the man glaring down on him, “You are the reason he hates me! First you throw my dog away like garbage and then you make my brother hate me!”

Rusty really couldn’t tell you what he was thinking, he was just so caught up in it all thinking about Scamp going missing, him finding the body in the trash after days of looking and then his dad loudly telling him he was getting a cartoon when he (reasonably in his opinion) got upset.

“I never wanted that stupid cartoon!” he screamed kicking his uncle in the shin as hard as a scrawny nine-year-old could, “I just wanted you to say sorry for treating my dog like garbage instead of like our family! Maybe give him a proper burial instead of just leaving him there!”

His uncles nor his father had never hit him before, never once had they laid a hand on him, he always associated actions like that with henchmen or the villain of the month who somehow got past their defenses.

But his tantrum just hit his Uncle Rodney’s last nerve after a long day of playing his father’s assistant in the lab and he struck Rusty hard enough across the face with his hand to knock him over and make him see stars, blacking out a moment before he hit the ground, shakily touching the side of his face where a large bruise was coming in. His nose was swollen as well and blood was beginning to dribble down his face as he lay there breathing heavy still in shock that his uncle, a member of his family had been the one to strike him.

“Oh shit,” Rodney mumbled instantly realizing what he did seeing Rusty sobbing on the ground, “Oh shit…Rusty…I’m so sorry…”

Rusty couldn’t hear him, over his own sobs and panic. His family had never hit him before, he never expected them to hurt him…not like the henchmen and villains, not like the bad guys. 

“Rodney! What the blasted hell did you do??”

“Rusty was throwing a tantrum, again and I…”

“You hit my son?”

He felt someone gently forcing his hand away from his face.

“Rodney, damn you, you left a bruise! He can’t have his picture taken with that giant bruise and his bloody nose!”

“I didn’t mean it…I am so sorry Jonas, I don’t know what came over me…”

His father sighed loudly scooping Rusty off the floor and pressing the swollen damaged side of his face into his shoulder.

“Its fine, we will just have to cancel for today,” his father grumbled, obviously more annoyed then angry his friend had struck his son. 

“Do you want me to leave Jonas?” he sounded hesitant, almost scared.

“I don’t care what you do, go check on my other son and make sure he’s fine. If you leave tell Kano to keep a close eye on him. Go, cancel my appointments before you go anywhere. I am going to go give Rusty something to calm down.”

His father began scraping his nails through his hair, his father’s annoyance of todays events evident. Rusty began tensing up, if Rodney could do that, maybe his father would too.

“It’s alright Rusty,” he mumbled into his ear, “Can you tell daddy why you made your uncle that mad?”

“M-malcom is mad at me because he isn’t in the and I just want scamp back…I didn’t want the cartoon!” he continued to sob out and his father let out a deep breath.

“Daddy told you, the show wouldn’t sell well with Malcom in it right away…maybe next season. I can get you a better dog, Rusty. Now no more crying…”

But Rusty couldn’t stop crying, once the dam gates had opened there was no closing them. He clung to his father as he gave him a mild sedative whispering promises of how he would fix everything but right now, Rusty needed to stop.

And after a few moments the sedative kicked in and Rusty did stop, falling into a drugged sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what you guys think?

**Author's Note:**

> I'm kinda just winging this series as I go while my venture bros high is still here, so if you have anything you want to happen in this AU, go ahead and suggest it and I will try to get to it soon.


End file.
